I looked over the Hackintosh Tutorial. It looks well done. Still requires someone with PC experience but it is one of the better guides for this. I would suggest shopping around for the components. Use Amazon but also NewEgg, MicroCenter, buy.com, etc. (MicroCenter is notorious for having Intel CPUs for dirt cheap prices for some reason.) I would also try to use a nice Intel 510 series SSD for better performance and reliability. The liquid CPU cooler is overkill unless you plan to overclock and if you do, you should just save a little money and go with the i5-3570K. (Here is a good discussion about i7 vs i5 performance with regard to gaming or photo/video work. http://apcmag.com/ivy-bridge-cpu-buyers-guide.htm ) Overall, this *might* inspire me to build one sometime. Most of what stops me is all the work that this guy already performed so I may give it shot sometime soon.

I would recommend to daniemare to go for the 27" with the i5 and fusion drive, then max out the RAM to 36 GB aftermarket. This should service your needs very well for 3 or 4 years. I am about to receive my new iMac Tuesday [about 4 weeks from my order] as a replacement for my Mac Pro 2,1. I really wanted a new Pro, but got tired of waiting for Apple to crank out an actual, modern, state-of-art replacement. I use Lightroom and Photoshop, which is not really too demanding, but specced out my iMac all the way [except for RAM] anyway, so that I'll be comfortable keeping it for 5+ years.

I would recommend to daniemare to go for the 27" with the i5 and fusion drive, then max out the RAM to 36 GB aftermarket. This should service your needs very well for 3 or 4 years. I am about to receive my new iMac Tuesday [about 4 weeks from my order] as a replacement for my Mac Pro 2,1. I really wanted a new Pro, but got tired of waiting for Apple to crank out an actual, modern, state-of-art replacement. I use Lightroom and Photoshop, which is not really too demanding, but specced out my iMac all the way [except for RAM] anyway, so that I'll be comfortable keeping it for 5+ years.

If you get the iMac 27" i5, you can upgrade the ram from Crucial for a couple hundred dollars. http://tinyurl.com/a8gz37dThat's about all you can do after it is purchased. Then pray nothing ever goes wrong with it since it can't be opened easily. And after you upgrade it all the way at purchase time, you could be well on your way to a retina macbook pro. (Still more expensive but much better unit and more versatile.)

I am a Mac fan, have only ever owned Macs blah blah. I cannot understand anybody buying any kind of computer where the hard drive is not comparatively easily replaced, for goodness sake in this day and age they are practically consumables. iMacs have become toys for the masses, and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, just don't even think about getting one for actual computing work. As I said earlier in the thread, the Mac Mini is far better than the iMac, I put a second drive in mine so I now have a 256GB SSD and a 1TB 7200 internal, I also maxed the RAM and it is a great little tool, works well for photos but I wouldn't like to edit too much video on it. The 2012 iMac is tomorrows doorstop.

P.S. My sister has had five iMacs, her current one the HD died on 13 months, she has been booting from an external USB drive for months, postage to get it to a somebody who can split it open is around $100, each way, and that is an iMac that can be worked on, plus the cost of the drive and the semi skilled fitting and even that is a crazy hassle to get a new HDD.

TOTALLY AGREE! My sentiments exactly. Very expensive and very risky. As I look at the Apple store, I guess the Mac Mini is a better value now than it used to be. (It used to be so weak, limited and expensive that any mac laptop was a better deal.) So yeah, I guess I could support a Mac Mini purchase now. Esp if you get a nice IPS display. You can get my DELL U2410 for around $300 now. It's great. Or any nice display including Apple (Glossy = GLARE!) depending on how much $$ you want to spend.

@Cayenne http://sonnettech.com/ Thunderbolt to PCIe break out box - looks like we can't do video cards there yet.

The reason for an upgraded video card is if you're going to be driving multiple displays. Mac + TB Display + Displayport for IPS screen means that 1gb of RAM may not have enough room to run everything.

Doing an iMac with a second display (matte) would actually be your best option - look at things under both conditions, remembering that lots of content consumption is done on glossy displays. And when she's away, plug in a MBP and run all 3 screens.

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Great RMC33! Sounds like a wise choice. However on the SSD, if not a huge rush on the 512, get a 256 until the prices drop more. It's easy to upgrade later with SuperDuper. Just my 2c. If you want great performance and solid reliability, get an Intel 520 series 240GB unit for about $250. Lightning fast and Intel quality. Or the 480 GB version isn't that much more (per GB) I guess at $510 for 480GB. Either way you will love the Intel SSDs and they come with wonderful install kits too. Don't forget to get a large 2TB drive and a redundant external 2TB drive for internal redundant storage and internal/external backups.

Great RMC33! Sounds like a wise choice. However on the SSD, if not a huge rush on the 512, get a 256 until the prices drop more. It's easy to upgrade later with SuperDuper. Just my 2c. If you want great performance and solid reliability, get an Intel 520 series 240GB unit for about $250. Lightning fast and Intel quality. Or the 480 GB version isn't that much more (per GB) I guess at $510 for 480GB. Either way you will love the Intel SSDs and they come with wonderful install kits too. Don't forget to get a large 2TB drive and a redundant external 2TB drive for internal redundant storage and internal/external backups.

I have an extra 512 Crucial. It was for my old laptop but I got the MBP Retina so it has been sitting. The internals will be 2x 2TB caviar blacks in RAID1 with 6tb of NAS (In raid 1). I will also be bumping to 16gb of ram.

I learned a long time ago to back up back up back up. ALl my photo shoots are on 8 or 16gb cards and I dump to a custom built card reader/HDD/Screen while shooting. I lost almost an entire Ducks game to 1 64GB card dying.

Either way.. Thank you and Night for your advice. I placed the order with apple (and even got the GF to get a 2nd monitor!) about an hour ago. I am kind of curious if apple has kept their internals super clean like back in the G5 series days.

Great RMC33! Sounds like a wise choice. However on the SSD, if not a huge rush on the 512, get a 256 until the prices drop more. It's easy to upgrade later with SuperDuper. Just my 2c. If you want great performance and solid reliability, get an Intel 520 series 240GB unit for about $250. Lightning fast and Intel quality. Or the 480 GB version isn't that much more (per GB) I guess at $510 for 480GB. Either way you will love the Intel SSDs and they come with wonderful install kits too. Don't forget to get a large 2TB drive and a redundant external 2TB drive for internal redundant storage and internal/external backups.

I have an extra 512 Crucial. It was for my old laptop but I got the MBP Retina so it has been sitting. The internals will be 2x 2TB caviar blacks in RAID1 with 6tb of NAS (In raid 1). I will also be bumping to 16gb of ram.

I learned a long time ago to back up back up back up. ALl my photo shoots are on 8 or 16gb cards and I dump to a custom built card reader/HDD/Screen while shooting. I lost almost an entire Ducks game to 1 64GB card dying.

Either way.. Thank you and Night for your advice. I placed the order with apple (and even got the GF to get a 2nd monitor!) about an hour ago. I am kind of curious if apple has kept their internals super clean like back in the G5 series days.

Sounds sweet!! Can't wait to hear about all the great work and satisfaction you are getting from the new setup. Coooool!

See this is what I don't get. Recently my friend needed a workstation for solidworks and stuff like that, and we built something very similar to what you spec here. But when his wife, who is in film production, wanted a new computer, a new iMac was pretty much the best solution for her for the stuff she likes to do at home, and for what she wants from a machine as far as non-functional aspects (appearance, form factor, etc.)

So I am at a loss as to why you think the solution you've listed is the appropriate choice for everybody just because it is the appropriate choice for you. Do you think everyone is exactly like you? Do you truly believe those two machines are equivalent in every way that matters except price?

Brand B - dolina is joking. I think if you read through the thread, you'll find several ideas but everyone is trying to avoid the mac vs PC debate as much as is possible without denying the price factor. I didn't get the impression the theme of the thread was that one size fits all. The theme does have a lot of opinions that agree about the iMac not being the best choice for video work or any purpose that requires long term performance and reliability. The iMac simply can't be repaired or upgraded easily and is still expensive to get configured to the highest spec available. The other undeniable fact is that regardless of which Apple solution is chosen, they are all very expensive for that experience. So to save money, buying a refurbished system may be a good compromise and still achieve good satisfaction and value.